Massa: Red Bull in a different league 05 Aug 2010
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa has admitted Red Bull were in a league of their own at last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. The Austrian team’s Sebastian Vettel clinched pole position in Budapest with a 1.2 second margin, while his team mate Mark Webber took victory 17.8s ahead of Massa’s Ferrari colleague Fernando Alonso.
At the previous round in Germany Ferrari seemed to have the edge, with Alonso and Massa scoring a dominant one-two at Hockenheim, but just a week later at the Hungaroring Red Bull had returned to form. And the Brazilian believes this turnaround in performance can be explained by the characteristics of the two circuits in question.
“In Germany, we seemed to have the fastest car and just a few days later, Red Bull were in a different league to all the other teams,” he explained to Ferrari’s official website. “They have nearly always been fastest, apart maybe from Bahrain and then Hockenheim. It is mainly related to the nature of the track. In Germany we qualified in much the same time and then we were quicker in the race, but in Hungary they were 1.2 seconds faster, which suggests to me that in Hockenheim they underperformed.”
Despite acknowledging the dominance of the Red Bulls, Massa, who has returned to Brazil for the summer break, is more than happy with the pace of his F10 and his fourth-place result in Hungary.
“It is good to be home after what was one of the busiest months I can remember in my time in Formula One,” he said. “And thankfully, it ended with a couple of good results that suggest Ferrari is returning to the form that we expect.
“Now we have a long break, which means three weekends without racing and even though the momentum has picked up for Ferrari in the last couple of weeks, I am happy to have this pause. It is important for the drivers to have a rest after such a busy schedule in recent weeks and it is especially important for everyone in the team, who have worked so hard. I will be spending it at home with my family here in Brazil, relaxing and spending time with my son, which actually is almost like a full time job!”
Massa will be back on track for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps on August 27-29.
